Keep in mind that if you have software assurance, you can pay for SA
support contract.  This is not as onerous as paying for a TAM support
level either.  We do have a TAM, but on several product lines we have
SA support.  We tend to use our SA support more then our premier
support.  Granted we can escalate an SA ticket to a premiere support
if needed, but even our environment rarely needs it.  I am tied into
the SA on Exchange and LCS/OCS which came in handy.  I believe we also
have SA support on MOSS as well.

Some of our products are on SA email only and others on Email / Phone
support depending on how visible/critical they are.

Steven

On Fri, Jul 31, 2009 at 1:40 PM, Brian Desmond<[email protected]> wrote:
> Right so deploying LUA is a project. Have to separate projects and 
> operations. If you can make operations a small part of your team's days then 
> you have more time for projects. Projects are the fun stuff but ops are what 
> most people measure you by. This is one of those ongoing issues with IT orgs 
> as they need to do both. I've seen some large ones split into two orgs - one 
> ops one engineering/projects. Solves the problem but tends to have a lot of 
> political side effects.
>
> Thanks,
> Brian Desmond
> [email protected]
>
> c - 312.731.3132
>
> Active Directory, 4th Ed - http://www.briandesmond.com/ad4/
> Microsoft MVP - https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/Brian
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Kurt Buff [mailto:[email protected]]
> Sent: Friday, July 31, 2009 3:31 PM
> To: NT System Admin Issues
> Subject: Re: Is there a SharePoint Expert that can help me out? 2.0 - 3.0 
> PROBLEMS
>
> While I agree with the general approach, I believe that my higher impact task 
> is to get LUA implemented. Not that we can't/shouldn't do as you suggest 
> anyway, but I'm over 90% certain that most of our problems are end-user 
> configuration issues. The other thing is that my two guys are relatively 
> young in their careers, although they are very sharp, and they are still 
> learning many of the fundamentals.
>
> I'll be reviewing the ticketing system too, to see if I can pick out anything 
> that could be done better.
>
> Kurt
>
> On Fri, Jul 31, 2009 at 13:01, Brian Desmond<[email protected]> wrote:
>> What I would suggest doing is have everyone on your team make a list of the 
>> tasks they do, each time they do them for a couple weeks. At the end tally 
>> it all up and see where you're spending your time and then dedicate time to 
>> figuring out how to automate as much as possible of the top tasks. Even if 
>> it's a really amateur script, getting that step done means you can spend 
>> your time on something else.
>>
>> Three good people is enough to run A LOT of stuff if you're efficient about 
>> it.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Brian Desmond
>> [email protected]
>>
>> c - 312.731.3132
>>
>> Active Directory, 4th Ed - http://www.briandesmond.com/ad4/ Microsoft
>> MVP - https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/Brian
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Kurt Buff [mailto:[email protected]]
>> Sent: Friday, July 31, 2009 2:39 PM
>> To: NT System Admin Issues
>> Subject: Re: Is there a SharePoint Expert that can help me out? 2.0 -
>> 3.0 PROBLEMS
>>
>> Yeah, I find it highly unlikely that our execs would see the benefit in 
>> shelling out that kind of cash annually, but I sure do wish they would.
>>
>> I may try to make the case anyway, especially given that I'm running 
>> especially lean after losing one of my team and not getting a replacement. 
>> It's just three of us on the Infrastructure team, supporting the users and 
>> all of the associated servers, routers/switches/firewalls, printers, 
>> Blackberry, etc.
>>
>> Gotta be cheaper than hiring another guy, if I can get my team (and
>> me!) up to speed on the things we're supporting. I know we can be a
>> lot more efficient, but that's partly politics (getting policies
>> approved and being allowed to enforce them) and partly education (just
>> how do you get end users to not be Administrators on their
>> workstations for these 12 apps, and how can we deploy them
>> automagically via GP, among many other questions?)
>>
>> Kurt
>>
>> On Fri, Jul 31, 2009 at 12:18, Brian Desmond<[email protected]> wrote:
>>> There's a base one that doesn't have a lot of the benefits that's in the 
>>> $15K range annually. Premiere works on a hours basis - you buy a block of 
>>> hours and can use them for various things, support, training, onsite 
>>> engagements, etc.
>>>
>>> Agreed it's unlikely to make sense for a small firm on the outside, but, if 
>>> your business depends on your IT systems and you lose money when they 
>>> break, it's insurance. With a pro case there's no SLA to escalate a Sev A 
>>> case to CPR at the four hour mark.
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>> Brian Desmond
>>> [email protected]
>>>
>>> c - 312.731.3132
>>>
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: Kurt Buff [mailto:[email protected]]
>>> Sent: Friday, July 31, 2009 12:32 PM
>>> To: NT System Admin Issues
>>> Subject: Re: Is there a SharePoint Expert that can help me out? 2.0 -
>>> 3.0 PROBLEMS
>>>
>>> Just how much does a premier contract cost? When you are a manufacturing 
>>> company of less than 300 people, I doubt you can afford it.
>>>
>>> So far all this discussion does is warn me to stay away from SharePoint.
>>>
>>> Kurt
>>>
>>> On Fri, Jul 31, 2009 at 07:24, Brian Desmond<[email protected]> wrote:
>>>> A lot of this is also a function of the fact that you get totally
>>>> different support if you    Ь  ╨  ▓re calling on a pro case (when you
>>>> call and put it on a credit card) versus a premier contract.
>>>> Premiere support comes with SLAs, a TAM to complain to, etc. The pro
>>>> cases folks are outsourced and come with none of that. You get what
>>>> you pay for essentia  т Ь   ФР   ╝  ╢
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Thanks,
>>>>
>>>> Brian Desmond
>>>>
>>>> [email protected]
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> c - 312.731.3132
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> From: Rob Bonfiglio [mailto:[email protected]]
>>>> Sent: Friday, July 31, 2009 9:03 AM
>>>> To: NT System Admin Issues
>>>> Subject: Re: Is there a SharePoint Expert that can help me out? 2.0
>>>> - 3.0 PROBLEMS
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> I had a call once that last for about 12 hours...but that was mostly
>>>> b/c the SharePoint engineer didn't seem to know much about
>>>> SQL...after about 10-11 hours of working he got a SQL engineer on
>>>> the phone and it was fixed pretty quickly.
>>>>
>>>> On Fri, Jul 31, 2009 at 9:42 AM, Carol Fee <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> +1 on that.  You really did get lucky.  PSS for SharePoint and MOSS
>>>> +is not
>>>> spiffy.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> CFee
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> ________________________________
>>>>
>>>> From: Ken Schaefer [mailto:[email protected]]
>>>>
>>>> Sent: Thursday, July 30, 2009 8:05 PM
>>>>
>>>> To: NT System Admin Issues
>>>> Subject: RE: Is there a SharePoint Expert that can help me out? 2.0
>>>> - 3.0 PROBLEMS
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Four hours is nothing ;-)
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> We   ФЬ    ╨▓ve had PSS calls open for weeks with SharePoint. Had
>>>> another SharePoint + DPM issue that went all the way back to the PGs
>>>> to have them figure out which of the two products (or how they were
>>>> interacting) was breaking DPM. I think that was 6 weeks all up.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Cheers
>>>>
>>>> Ken
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> From: Marty Nelson [mailto:[email protected]]
>>>> Sent: Friday, 31 July 2009 1:03 AM
>>>> To: NT System Admin Issues
>>>> Subject: RE: Is there a SharePoint Expert that can help me out? 2.0
>>>> - 3.0 PROBLEMS
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> I ended up on the phone with MS for four hours so something went
>>>> really wrong and thank god they knew where to fix it!
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Thanks again for the suggestions.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> -Marty
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> From: Ken Schaefer [mailto:[email protected]]
>>>> Sent: Wednesday, July 29, 2009 6:20 PM
>>>> To: NT System Admin Issues
>>>> Subject: RE: Is there a SharePoint Expert that can help me out? 2.0
>>>> - 3.0 PROBLEMS
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> The Configuration Database is an SQL Server (or MSDE) database somewhere.
>>  а  т Ь   ФР    Ь  ╨  ▓s usually called SharePoint_Config (for MOSS at 
>>least).
>>>So, you
>>>> have to have SQL Server or MSDE somewhere, and it needs to be hosting this 
>>>> database.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> You can run the SharePoint Technologies Configuration Wizard to
>>>> reconnect to the database, but you obviously need to know what your
>>>> SQL Server name/instance is...
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Cheers
>>>> Ken
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> From: Marty Nelson [mailto:[email protected]]
>>>> Sent: Thursday, 30 July 2009 3:49 AM
>>>> To: NT System Admin Issues
>>>> Subject: RE: Is there a SharePoint Expert that can help me out? 2.0
>>>> - 3.0 PROBLEMS
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Sorry, a little more info.  This is running on a W2K3 SP@ machine with IE7.
>>>> Now it  т Ь   Ф ▓s degraded to the point to where I cannot even connect
>>>> to the central management page.  Say   ФЬ    Р  гCannot connect to the
>>>> configuration database.   Ф  ФР
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Now when I set this up originally YEARS ago, I accepted all of the
>>>> defaults and now have no idea where the data resides.  I have ~*
>>>> very lightly used SharePoint sites, none of which are available at the 
>>>> moment.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> This database error is a new phenomenon since I last posted
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Thanks,
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> -Marty
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> From: Marty Nelson [mailto:[email protected]]
>>>> Sent: Wednesday, July 29, 2009 10:20 AM
>>>> To: NT System Admin Issues
>>>> Subject: Is there a SharePoint Expert that can help me out? 2.0 -
>>>> 3.0 PROBLEMS
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> So I started the workup to this upgrade yesterday.  Got all of the
>>>> prereq stuff loaded, ran a prescan everything came back dandy.  Ran the 
>>>> upgrade,
>>>> looked like it finished with no problems.   And tha   ФЬ   Т   Ф ▓s where 
>>>> it fell off of
>>>> a cliff.  Looking at the upgrade.log file there are some errors and
>>>> failures, but I have no idea what it means, much less how to fix them.
>>>> If there    Ь  ╨  ▓s anyone out there that can help me out I would greatly 
>>>> appreciate it!
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> FWIW, these are the instructions  т Ь   ФР   ▓ve been following:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc424954.aspx
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> PLEASE HELP!
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> -Marty
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>> ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~
>>> <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/>  ~
>>>
>>>
>>> ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~
>>> <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/>  ~
>>
>> ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~
>> <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/>  ~
>>
>>
>> ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~
>> <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/>  ~
>
> ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ 
> <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/>  ~
>
>
> ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~
> ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/>  ~

~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~
~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/>  ~

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